Eruditus is India’s fourth edtech unicorn, valued at $3.2 billion

• Eruditus has raised $650 million in a funding round led by investment firms Accel and SoftBank.
• It is the third highest valued edtech startup in India, after Byju’s and Unacademy.
• Earlier this week, Ronnie Screwvala’s upGrad entered the unicorn club after raising $185 million.

Mumbai-based Eruditus has raised $650 million in a funding round led by investment firms Accel and SoftBank. This round has valued Eruditus at $3.2 billion, making it the third highest valued edtech startup in India.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board also participated in the new round.

Prior to this, the company had raised $113 million in Series D round led by Leeds Illuminate and Prosus Ventures. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), a non-profit organisation headed by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, has also participated in the round that valued Eruditus at $700 million.

Founded in 2010 by Chaitanya Kalipatnapu and Ashwin Damera, Eruditus works with universities globally to offer six to eight months-long executive-level courses to students present across 80 countries. These courses cost anything between $5,000 to $40,000, and are available for on-campus, off-campus and online modes.

Some of the universities it has tied up with include Columbia, Harvard Business School, INSEAD, Tuck at Dartmouth, Wharton, UC Berkeley and London Business School.

This is SoftBank’s second major bet in India’s edtech sector. The Japanese conglomerate has also invested in Bengaluru-based Unacademy, which is the second highest valued edtech startup after Byju’s.

Unacademy raised $440 million, earlier this month, in a funding round led by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings. The Gaurav Munjal-led startup is currently valued at $3.4 billion, and counts General Atlantic and Tiger Global as investors.

Apart from that, Ronnie Screwvala-led higher education platform upGrad entered the unicorn club earlier this week, after raising $185 million from Temasek, IFC (International Finance Corporation, a sister organisation of the World Bank) and IIFL. The company is now valued at $1.2 billion.

A unicorn is a startup valued at or above $1 billion.

Out of all the edtech startups in India, Byju’s is the only decacorn (valued at above $10 billion) with a valuation of $16.5 billion. It is also the highest valued edtech startup in the world and the most valued startup in India.

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